Lead Poisoning Linked to Violent Crime

"If econometric studies were all there were to the story of lead, you'd be justified in remaining skeptical no matter how good the statistics look. Even when researchers do their best—controlling for economic growth, welfare payments, race, income, education level, and everything else they can think of—it's always possible that something they haven't thought of is still lurking in the background. But there's another reason to take the lead hypothesis seriously, and it might be the most compelling one of all: Neurological research is demonstrating that lead's effects are even more appalling, more permanent, and appear at far lower levels than we ever thought."*

Could it be that America's real criminal element...is lead? Studies show exposure to lead may effect the brain and cause people to be more likely to commit violent crime. Is the theory too far fetched? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss the research.

*Read more from Kevin Drum/ Mother Jones:
http://www.motherjones.com/environmen...

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• Category

  News & Politics

[TheMrCJist]

Sorry yer honour....

I was lead to do it.

[dahills32542]

Cops wear lead vest? Cops doing more violent acts that really aren't justified. Hmmmm.

[wrathofme03]

Lead bullets.

[Talltrees84]

I have read that lead poisoning greatly contributed to the decline and eventual fall of the Roman empire. Leaders and people drinking out of lead goblets and the like.

[lordblazer]

I'm just pointing out the native's point of view. your response was a parody I guess. I can't take it seriously

[some1NL]

Bullshit!! As said before, there are a lot more black people who have lead poisoning and so it justify s their criminal abuse. Bullshit. And come on, Lead is the new alcohol or some other drugs now ?

[wikieditspam]

Correlation does not imply causation. Look at it from an political economist's perspective. This doesn't sound like very solid science.

[Nick Tumi]

Anna is so sexy when she talks smart. Which is mostly all the time.

[cryofpaine]

That's an excellent question, and thank you for asking it. I'm sure a lot of people are going to miss that important little detail.

I suppose that there could be symptoms of acute lead poisoning that we don't know about. Elevated criminal tendencies being one of them. But this is definitely a question that should be looked into more if they want this study to be taken seriously.

[cryofpaine]

They wear Kevlar vests, not lead. 

[myteethareshiny]

Are they fucking joking? They don't know why crime increased in between the 60s and the 90s? It's pretty fucking simple, and it has nothing to do with fucking lead paint! It was the fucking war on drugs! They made a bunch of laws that made certain very common activities a criminal offense, and then they wonder why crime rates rose?

I usually respect the young turks, but this video is fucking retarded.